Hi, new to the forum. Just bought a 2009 Nightster. My wife was riding it the other day, stopped on a slanted road and proceeded to put her foot down on the downhill side (You can guess what happens next).

Anyways, now I have two problems. One, the fuel light will not shut off. Two, I am hearing a ticking sound (sounds like a valve). The bike runs fine, rides fine, seems fine other than those two things. She was at a complete stop when it happened.

Any ideas as to what could be wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It is definitely a valve tapping on the front cylinder. Still a mystery on the fuel light.

Think it could be running lean? Not enough fuel pressure?

 

So nada? I did search the forum and find people with both issues, but this bike did not have these problems until after it was dropped. I am worried she may have damaged something in the engine. I don't really care about the fuel light.

 

Did the exhaust take a wack? Maybe an exhaust gasket got screwed up???

 

How screwed up would screwed up have to be? I did check the pipes... no scratches, they were tight, everything seemed fine there. I took the rocker covers off and oil is getting to the top of the engine.

How loud is acceptable for the top end of the engine? I have loud pipes and I can still here that tick very clearly. It turns more into a hammer tapping sound if I really goose it. The tick also gets much louder if I use the engine to break. If I cruise in 5th gear at 60-65 it sounds like normal. It gets worse as the engine gets hotter.

I know people on the forum have complained about ticks/etc on the forum. And I know they say changing the oil helps. But this bike wasn't doing this 2 days ago.

 

I also noticed that the front cylinder is smoking a little on start-up now.

 

My money is still on the exhaust gasket.


RAL

 

So I took the pipes off. The front gasket was a little messed up.

In the process of taking the pipes off, I busted not one, but two exhaust studs! So, a quick and easy ~30 min job turned into a weekend long surgical extraction.

When I finally got it all put back together, nothing had changed. What a nightmare .